Artist: Jorge Pedro Nuñez
Exhibition title: Lavas y Magmas
Venue: Crèvecoeur, Paris, France
Date: May 18 – June 9, 2018
Photography: © Aurélien Mole, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Crèvecoeur, Paris
For his fourth exhibition at the Galerie Crèvecoeur, Jorge Pedro Nuñez is evoking several fields of research which are recurrent in his work: optical illusions, theories and problems associated with the workings of the universe (space-time), pop culture, or the making of structures using pre-existing objects.
The departure point for this exhibition comes from the defiance of gravity. In 1993, Michael Jackson, the planetary pop star, decided to patent “Anti-Gravity Illusion Shoes”, accessories that allowed him to bring off one of his best-known choreographic movements, which appeared for the first time in 1987 in the clip for “Smooth Criminal”, and which produces an illusion of controlled falling. After finding the design of these shoes, now openly accessible online, Jorge Pedro Nuñez set about deconstructing the movements he created, until they became almost ghostly, as if this were a real scientific procedure.
This question of a physical illusion has been transcribed into a series of sculptures presented in the exhibition, all made up of geometric assemblages of recycled objects and plaster. It is as if he had the possibility to deconstruct physical matter, like the different lines of a schema, while also using the precision of kinetic art, the artist stretches, twists and takes apart the geometrical lines of everyday objects (mattresses, rackets, clothes dryers) so as to produce a new direction. He applies to them a material often associated both with construction and the history of sculpture: plaster. This allows him to fix the gravitational pull.
By orbiting between physical and media illusion, between scientific procedures and pop culture, between geometric rigour and expressionist productions, Jorge Pedro Nuñez is pursuing his work of decoding and de-codification of aesthetic forms.
“We live in a world populated by structures- a complex mixture of geological, biological, social, and linguistic constructions that are nothing but accumulations of materials shaped and hardened by history. Immersed as we are in this mixture, we cannot help but interact in a variety of ways with the other historical constructions that surround us, and in these interactions we generate novel combinations [, some of which possess emergent properties. In turn, these synergistic combinations, whether of human origin or not, become the raw material for further mixtures.” Manuel de Landa, excerpt from “A Thousand Years of Non Linear History”.
Jorge Pedro Nuñez, Lavas y Magmas, 2018, exhibition view, Crèvecoeur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Nuñez, Lavas y Magmas, 2018, exhibition view, Crèvecoeur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Nuñez, Lavas y Magmas, 2018, exhibition view, Crèvecoeur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Nuñez, Lavas y Magmas, 2018, exhibition view, Crèvecoeur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Nuñez, Lavas y Magmas, 2018, exhibition view, Crèvecoeur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Nuñez, Lavas y Magmas, 2018, exhibition view, Crèvecoeur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, Doppler E ect, 2018, squash racket, metal, plaster, acrylic painting 55 x 70 x 42 cm (base: 80 x 38 x 55 cm), © Aurélien Mole, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, Doppler E ect, 2018, squash racket, metal, plaster, acrylic painting 55 x 70 x 42 cm (base: 80 x 38 x 55 cm), © Aurélien Mole, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, From another forces and Michael Jackson’s, Anti-Gravity Illusion Shoes » (1), 2018, drawing on carbon paper, perspex, aluminium frame, 100 x 100 cm, © Aurélien Mole, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, From another forces and Michael Jackson’s Anti-Gravity Illusion Shoes » (2), 2018, drawing on carbon paper, perspex, aluminium frame, 100 x 100 cm, © Aurélien Mole, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, sans titre (lavas lavas), 2018, metal, plaster, 104 x 37 x 45 cm, © Élise Fourché, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, sans titre (lavas lavas), 2018, metal, plaster, 104 x 37 x 45 cm, © Élise Fourché, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
Jorge Pedro Núñez, Waves and Waves, 2018, badmington rackets, plaster, acrylic painting 20 x 32 x 23 cm, © Élise Fourché, Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris
